TANZANIA HERE I COME
In a few days
I’ll be heading back to my mission in the village of Kowak in northern
Tanzania. You can find it on Google Earth if you have that on your computer.
This is what you are looking for, obviously without the text. Just search for
Kowak, Tanzania, or click the link at the bottom of this page labeled "location". Then click the box marked "Earth". Zoom in and out to see where it is relative to Kenya.
This Catholic
mission was initially established by the White Fathers of Africa in the 1930’s
and was taken over by the American Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in 1946. The
Maryknoll Sisters came a few years later and established a medical dispensary
and convent. The Maryknoll Lay Missioners started coming in the 1980’s, I
believe, to work at the health care center. There have been a number of
Maryknoll pastors at this location, but the current pastor, Fr James Conard from
Green Bay, has been there the longest by far. He moved to Kowak in 1978 after
22 years in other missions in the area. He celebrated 58 years of priesthood
last June and is still in amazingly good health and energy.
The great success
of this mission is due to Fr Conard’s amazing energy and desire to maintain and
expand this large complex which includes the church, hospital, grinding mill,
and girl’s secondary school. He basically built the school from scratch in
1992. He has employed the Sisters of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (SABS)
to administer the hospital the last 15 years and administer the secondary
school the last 2 years. These lovely sisters are from India and have done
wonderful things in continually suggesting improvements for Fr Conard to
implement.
This mission
and pastor are under Bishop Michael and the Diocese of Musoma which has other
missionary priests, but are predominantly Tanzanian priests. So when the time
comes for Fr Conard to retire the bishop will be responsible to designating a
new pastor to manage this large complex. If the Maryknoll Fathers have a priest
available the bishop would probably select him but they are all aging and most
would not have the energy or mechanical passion or skills to run this
operation. I try to return each year as a volunteer now after 3 ½ years as a
Maryknoll Lay Missioner at this wonderful mission. I worked these first years
as a bursar (financial manager) at the girl’s secondary school which boards 480
Tanzanian students of all faiths. Now I assist the sisters at both the hospital
and the school and Fr Conard in his many construction and repair projects.
The nearest
hospitals to the mission are a Mennonite hospital an hour away on dirt road and
government hospital about 45 minutes away on mostly paved road. Most of our
patients were under the age of 5 years until the health care center was
expanded to a hospital in 2009. We were able
to deliver babies if it was a normal delivery with a midwife. The predominant disease has been malaria
which requires very fast treatment in young children or they will die due to
low blood sugar. Rabies and cholera also require fast response but are not as
common. TB is a common problem for HIV patients.
Since the mid
1980’s HIV has been a growing problem and now about 25% of the tribal people in
this area are HIV positive. A generous donor from America gave $50,000 to the
health care center in 2008 which allowed the purchase of a CD4 analyzer. This
analyzer allowed Fr Conard to build a CTC treatment center for dispensing ARV
drugs to control this deadly disease. We now have 2,000 patients who come
monthly for testing and new drugs donated by USAID, I believe. This has saved
many hundreds of lives and reduced the number of orphans significantly.
The Maryknoll
Fathers and Brothers donate significant money each year for the construction of
new buildings like the new operating theater, doctor’s offices, men’s ward, women’s ward, staff housing and
most recently a new power generator from America. A larger NGO from the
Netherlands donated money and manpower to construct a 50 bed childrens ward
which was completed recently. Another European NGO has been supporting an
“outreach program” for mothers and children in remote areas. A parish in
Rochester NY has contributed large collections for drugs and medical needs
quarterly for the last 12 years or more. This has been a huge help.
We now hope to add
a second doctor to this hospital staff and I have recently been given an
indication that my ecumenical contemplative prayer group in Kansas City (Guardian
Angel Parish) will try to help finance most of this salary for the first year.
This will be a huge help and has motivated me to keep this new blog updated
with regular news of activities at the Kowak Hospital. Our first doctor arrived
about 4 years ago but was young and had a young family so did not stay long in
this remote area. Now we have a very talented older doctor and he is doing
amazing things in the operating room and in visiting with each patient. We are
anxious to give him some help with the addition of a similar doctor.
